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  • MATLAB toolbox: Vector Algebra for Multidimensional Arrays

    Dear subscribers,

    a new Vector Algebra Toolbox for the MATLAB programming language is freely
    available on the following web server:

    http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/

    FILE EXCHANGE CATHEGORY:
       - MATLAB Central >  File Exchange > Mathematics > Linear Algebra
    TITLE:
       - Vector Algebra for Multidimensional Arrays of Vectors

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
                     VECTOR ALGEBRA TOOLBOX
       Vector Algebra for Multidimensional Arrays of Vectors
                            By Paolo de Leva
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    KEYWORDS
    Outer product, Cross division, Norm, Unit vector, Projection Rejection

    SUMMARY
    Multiple outer products, cross divisions, norms, normalizations,
    projections, rejections, with no loops.

    DESCRIPTION
    This toolbox was written to complete the incomplete set of vectorial
    operations which can be performed with MATLAB 7 on block arrays of vectors
    (arrays of any size containing vectors along one of their dimensions).

    MATLAB 7 includes just five functions performing vectorial algebraic
    operations on N-D arrays of vectors:

    SUM (generic function usable to perform vector additions)
    + (generic operator usable to perform vector additions)
    - (generic operator usable to perform vector subtractions)
    DOT (specific function performing dot products)
    CROSS (specific function performing cross products)

    Except for SUM, they all perform multiple binary operations on pairs of
    vectors, contained in two arrays. SUM can be used to add together all the
    vectors contained in a single array or subarray.

    All of the above functions accept as input arrays of vectors. What about
    outer products and cross divisions?

    Outer products between two vectors (1-by-N or N-by-1) can be easily
    performed in MATLAB using the operators for matrix multiplication (*) and
    transposition ('). See the MATLAB Help page titled "Vector Products and
    Transpose".

    Outer products between two arrays of vectors become extremely easy if you
    use my function MULTIPROD (published separately, see below). They can be
    performed with a single call to MULTIPROD. However, a function called OUTER
    is included here, selecting for you the appropriate MULTIPROD syntax.

    As for cross division, it was not invented until now (see
    http://mathworld.wolfram.com/VectorDivision.html), but it was useful to me,
    so I invented it. It was not indispensable, but it markedly simplified my
    equations and my code, and those who appreciate short symbolic equations are
    likely to love it. Without it, in some cases you are forced to write scalar
    equations, containing negative terms and operations involving various
    combinations of scalar components. I am not saying those scalar equations
    are complex, but they are certainly less simple than a vectorial equation,
    and a typo is more likely to occur when you write scalar equations than when
    you write vectorial equations. See CROSSDIV help for more detailed
    explanations.

    A list of simple vectorial operations is given below. Only the first five
    can be performed with functions integrated in MATLAB 7. The others are
    implemented in this toolbox. All of them can be performed on N-D arrays of
    vectors.

    Operation: MATLAB implementation
    ----------------------------------------
    Repeated addition: SUM
    Binary addition: +
    Subtraction: -
    Dot product: DOT
    Cross product: CROSS
    Outer product: OUTER
    Cross division: CROSSDIV
    Euclidean norm: MAGN
    Normalization: UNIT
    Projection: PROJECTION
    Rejection: REJECTION

    See the respective help texts for further details.

    Some of the functions included in this toolbox call MULTIPROD. This function
    is a powerful generalization for N-D arrays of the MATLAB function MTIMES
    and the matrix multiplication operator (*).

    Obviously, MULTIPROD has a broad field of potential applications. For
    instance, it can use large arrays of 3-by-3 or 4-by-4 transformation
    matrices to perform, in a single step and with no loops, multiple
    geometrical transformations (rotations, roto-translations) on arrays of
    vectors. Thus, I believe it deserves a separate introduction and I published
    it in a separate package: "Matlab Central > File Exchange > Multiplying two
    N-D arrays of matrices, vectors or scalars".

    The functions testUNIT and testXDIV, included in this toolbox, contain the
    code I used to test the output of functions UNIT and CROSSDIV.

    OTHER REQUIREMENTS
    Some functions included in this toolbox call MULTIPROD. Since this is a
    versatile function with a broad field of applications, I published it
    separately: "Matlab Central > File Exchange > Multiplying two N-D arrays of
    matrices, vectors or scalars".

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    With my kindest regards,

    Paolo de Leva
    Department of Human Movement and Sport Sciences
    University Institute of Movement Science
    Rome, ITALY
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